Resurgence
by Nobody's Requiem
Summary: An old threat emerges from the Crystal Gems' past, and Steven gets grounded (again). With a threat this big, it'll take a whole lot of hot dogs to make this porkchop perfect again.
1. Sword of Secrets

Steven kicked his feet as he sat on the couch, waiting for the gems to return from their latest mission that was "too dangerous" for him. He was getting restless, though. An itch in his brain was telling him to go and explore the temple again. Maybe there were more strange and magical thing he could try to figure out. Like, a magic toaster that made perfect toast every time. A big grin breaking out on his face, Steven jumped off the couch and made his way towards the Crystal Heart of the temple so he could sneak down to the Burning Room.

"Magic toaster!" he yelled as he slid down, passing through various stages, including the layer for his mom's old room. Landing with a slight thud, he wiped some sweat from his forehead as he began to look around at the various items in the bubbles.

"Let's see..." he said, passing by numerous bubbles. "Centipeetle, a flower, some smoke, a bit of that moss... Wait, is that a...?" He immediately went over to a bubble containing an ornately crafted sword with a gem set into the hilt. The gem was milky white with bands of gray, like clouds against an overcast sky.

He reached out to touch the bubble, and the sword moved towards him, popping the bubble in its attempt to get to his hand. The minute he caught hold of it, he could feel something was off; it seemed to want to move on its own. He could feel light pressure as the sword made to move his hand. Remembering that the gems could be home any minute, he stuck the sword through a belt loop and proceeded to hop onto the Crystal Heart and climb his way back to his mom's layer.

Safely out of the danger zone, Steven pulled the sword out and looked at it again. It was just the right length and weight for him; it felt almost like a natural extension of himself. Remembering what had happened in the Burning Room, he considered it again. It still felt like it was trying to guide his hand. Now that there wasn't anything for him to mess up by hitting it with a sword, he felt like he could actually test it out.

"Room," he said, "could I get some sword-fighting test dummies?" Remembering the incident with Pearl, he hastily added, "With balloon swords instead of real ones!"

With a poof of pink smoke, a few rag-doll dummies with balloon swords in hand appeared. With the new targets available, Steven let himself follow the flow of the sword. It pulled him in quick, vicious slashes across the first dummy, who poofed away after the abuse let up for longer than a second. The second dummy had more holes in it than a block of Swiss cheese before it vanished. The third dummy was taken apart piece by piece.

"Cool..." Steven mused, starry eyes gazing at his new favorite gem item. "Why would they put this down in the Burning Room?" he said, turning it over a couple of times, and then his gaze fell to the gem in the hilt. "Wait... it has a gem. Just like the mirror with Lapis in it!" he said. His put his hand to it before pulling it back. When he'd freed Lapis Lazuli before, things didn't go so well to start with. She'd caused a lot of trouble and brought Homeworld gems down on their heads, but Steven was sure that all of that had just been because she was scared and unused to freedom. Perhaps if he could be careful and explain things to this gem before the gems got home, things would turn out differently. Taking hold of the gem, he tugged at it experimentally, before pulling on it in earnest. He felt like something was pulling against him, almost as if someone didn't want the gem free. Currents of wind were drawing some weird pattern in the pink clouds he was standing on, but Steven wasn't really paying any attention to that. He was focused on freeing this gem, who he was sure had been trapped for a very long time. With a final tug, the gem came free, the sword shattered, and the design disappeared. With a twinkle and then a flash of light, the gem reformed. She looked a bit like Lapis did. Her dress was strapless and a single piece, with very light looking fabric that you could almost see through. Some of the pink clouds began to swirl about her before they settled into the shape of wings coming from her gem on her back. She wobbled a bit on her feet before steadying herself, and turning to look at Steven.

"Hi there!" he said. "My name's Steven." She blinked a couple of times, as if she were still waking up.

"Steven?" she asked. "Who... What are you? Where am I?" The pink color of her wings was slowly changing to a light gray, and now Steven could see that the cloud-smoke wasn't what was really making her wings, but instead was trapped by constantly circulating wind currents. "Where are my team?" Steven snapped back as she seemed to become more panicked the more she woke up. "Answer me, please!"

"Uh, uh... Well, I'm a human and you're in the Gem Temple on Earth, and-"

"I'm in the Temple?" she asked, incredulous. "But it should have sank into the mantle after they captured us, unless they kept it up, but why would they..." She shook her head. "You've made no sense, Steven. How did you even make it past those monsters?"

"Oh, they were all bubbled," he said. "So I was in no real danger, and you sorta just came to me."

"I came to you?" she said. "But I was only looking for gems."

"I am a gem!" he said, showing his belly to her. "Well, half-gem, anyway."

"Hmm... How intriguing," she said. "I didn't know there was a life-form adaptable enough to hybridize with. Still, this most certainly doesn't look like any room we had in the Temple. Did you do this?" Steven shook his head.

"No, this was how my mom made the room." The gem looked around.

"Well, she has good taste in decor, but subpar sense when it comes to color choices," she said, then put a hand to her chest. "Oh, where are my manners? My name's Nepheline."

"It's nice to meet you, Nepheline!" Steven said. "Say, why were-"

"Steven, I'd love to continue talking," she said, "but first could we get out of here? The brightness is a bit grating on the nerves, especially after such a long, hard nap."

"Oh, uh... Sure," he said, and led her to the door. Stepping into the shack attached to the temple, she grimaced a bit. She had probably never seen a human house before. "Sorry it's a bit of a mess. Pearl usually cleans up for me but the gems have been going on a lot of missions lately."

"Pearl..." Nepheline said, her voice trailing off. "That name... Where did I hear it?" As her eyes widened, the warp pad made noise and lit up, the gems standing there.

"Steven we're-" Pearl started, then gasped. In a gust of wind, Nepheline had launched herself out of the house, the tailwind knocking Steven down and sending him rolling into a wall. Garnet pursued, and Amethyst and Pearl went over to Steven's side.

"Steven, who is that!?" Pearl said.

"Yeah, and why'd you let her in?" Amethyst followed. "She might be a Homeworld gem!"

"Her name..." Steven started. "She's... Nepheline. She was attached to a sword I found down in the Burning Room."

"Nepheline!" Pearl exclaimed. "Steven, why did you let her out?"

"Well, because she was trapped, like Lapis, and-"

"Yeah, because it went so well when you let Lapis out," Amethyst said.\

"Steven, I wish you hadn't done that," Pearl said, and then yelped as the sounds of combat outside escalated. Looking through the window, they could see a fierce battle, with Garnet doing flying leaps to try and hit the airborne gem. Unfortunately, with free control of her flight, she controlled the pacing of the battle, and thus was free to tire Garnet out as she dodged and wove through the air. Getting to his knees, Steven ran outside.

"Stop, please!" he cried out. "Both of you!" Garnet paused momentarily, which Nepheline used as an opportunity to lash out with gusts of wind. Knocked back into the cliffs, Garnet coughed and rested on one knee, trying to catch her breath.

"You... You lied to me!" Nepheline cried out, pointing a hand at Steven. "You said they were in containers! You said we were at the Temple! You..." She took a moment to look at the Temple's carving, then at Steven again. "No... You can't be."

"Nepheline, please, we can talk about all of this."

"Never!" she shouted. "I will never negotiate with the spawn of that witch. I will never forgive Rose Quartz, and I will never be your prisoner again!"

With an irate flap of her wings, Nepheline took off over the ocean, a loud crack following a moment later as she broke the sound barrier. Garnet picked herself up, dusting off the sand, and looked at Steven.

"Steven-"

"Yeah, I know. I'm grounded."


	2. The Other Gems

Steven was munching away at another together breakfast at around nine or so, with Pearl cleaning the fridge for the third time and Amethyst looking horribly tired after having run missions all night. Garnet came from her room and they all looked up as she stopped at the end of the counter. She looked a bit more grim than usual.

"We've got an important job to do today," she said. "We'll be heading to an inactive volcano to retrieve a gem artifact so that no one undesirable will be able to get their hands on it." Pearl lit up.

"A gem artifact?" she said. "Oh, what does this one do? Will it help us improve our knowledge of early gem culture on Earth? Is it older than we are?"

"Is this mission really that important?" Amethyst said, slouching off the seat and onto the floor. "I'm exhausted after all those missions last night."

"This needs doing now," Garnet said, then looked over at Steven. "And you'll be coming along. I don't want to have to worry about you letting another gem out, or watching television while we're away."

"Aww..." Steven said, hopping off the stool and putting his together breakfast into the fridge. "That so not fair, I never break the no television grounding rule."

The four of them stepped onto the warp pad and blinked away. They landed in a small alcove of a mountain facing towards the volcano. A long, black trail of smoke was clawing its way up from the mouth of the volcano. Garnet grunted and Pearl put her hand to her chin.

"Garnet, I thought you said this volcano was inactive..." she said. Garnet stepped out of the cave, observing the smoke.

"It's supposed to be."

They made their way down the craggy path into the valley between the two imposing structures, Steven humming the theme song for Crying Breakfast Friends as he walked. Pearl was busy attempting to identify crystal structures in the rocks of the mountains, and Amethyst was picking up rocks to take home with her, throwing the old one away every time she found a new one she liked better. Only Garnet seemed to be intently focused on the object of their mission. Her shoulders were squared forward and her brow was a bit furrowed. Finally, they reached a large fissure in the side of the volcano. Hot air seemed to be leaking out from it.

"Definitely active," Garnet said, continuing in. Pearl looked around the tunnel nervously as she and Amethyst proceeded. Steven fanned himself for a bit, then shook his head and ran inside.

"This is becoming more and more worrisome..." Pearl said, running a hand along the wall before retracting it. "These walls are already pretty hot."

"All the more reason to get the artifact before the volcano erupts."

Garnet reached a large door, and attempted to push it open, to no avail. Pearl came over, obviously about to examine it for some sort of mechanism, only for Garnet to punch through the stone and walk through the new opening. Pearl's mouth hung open, and Amethyst giggled as she followed Garnet.

"Nice one!" she said. "If we did that more often, I'd be more excited about missions." Steven followed behind her.

"Come on Pearl!" he said. "You don't wanna get left behind."

The room they were in had a large chasm in front of them with lots of stone platforms on pillars in the space between the two sides. Pearl caught up and scoffed.

"Well, I guess ancient gem security was a bit more lax than ours," she said. She moved to jump to a platform, and Garnet stopped her. A gout of flame spewed up from the chasm between Pearl and the platform she'd been about to jump to. Pearl made a small 'eep' sound and clung to Garnet's arm.

"Maybe not."

More flame spouts were shooting up from the chasm now. Pearl, no longer caught by surprise, took a deep breath and lept to a platform. From there, she made her way to another, and another, pausing as a flame geyser would erupt in front of her before continuing. Reaching the other side, she called back.

"There's a lever over here," she said. "I can't read Old Gem as well as I used to, but I think it says 'Safety Switch' or something like it."

"Pull it and we'll see," Garnet called back. A loud grinding noise, followed by an even louder scraping sound, like rock against rock, and then there were no more flame spouts. Garnet picked Steven up and made the jump across the chasm. Amethyst took the slower route of platform-to-platform. With everyone across, Garnet opened the doors next to the lever Pearl had found.

The next room was more like a long hall, and each of the walls was a line of carved dragon-like statues. Their mouths were open and their eyes were fierce. Steven cowered behind Garnet as she observed them. With a bit of a hissing noise preceeding them, the gargoyles began to spit fire from their mouths.

Steven ducked behind Pearl and Amethyst, while Garnet proceeded, smashing the gargoyles to stop the fireballs from being launched. Pearl clucked her disapproval as they moved.

"Garnet, these are ancient Gem statues!" she exclaimed. "How can you just go through and smash them?"

"Because they're shooting fire at us," responded Garnet, smashing the last gargoyle. "Someone really didn't want anyone getting in here."

"Well, they should've wanted it harder," Amethyst said, opening the next door.

Here, they found the main attraction- a large pedestal holding a crown on top of it. Pearl cooed at the sight, and Amethyst seemed to be looking it over like she did some of her favorite piles of junk.

"Garnet, why'd we come here for a tiara?" Steven asked. Garnet made a gem hologram, displaying herself.

"That crown can do some very nasty things, Steven," she said. Her hologram donned a replica tiara. "It allows gems that wear it to impose their will on others." Holograms of Pearl and Amethyst popped up, and began bowing to Garnet's. Then they all popped and disappeared.

"Oh, so we came here to grab it before any Homeworld gems can?" Steven asked.

"Precisely."

Garnet turned around, but then everyone was knocked flat to the ground by a powerful squall. Before they could react, Nepheline had flown in, alighting next to the crown. Steven was first up.

"Wha- Nepheline?" he said, mouth a little agape. "How... Why...?"

"I've come to collect what should never have been taken from me," she said. She picked up the crown, her fingers just barely caressing it as though she were afraid to break it. "Today, we take another step towards justice."

With that, she pulled the gem from the setting. A flash of light preceeded the formation of another gem. She stood on shaking legs for a couple of seconds, and then screamed as flames exploded from her back. They went from white to blue to yellow, before settling into a dance between red and orange. She fell to her knees, panting, and Nepheline helped her up.

"Spinel..." she said, smiling, before hugging her.

"Ouch!" the red gem said, tensing up. "Careful, you know I'm always sensitive after that." Spinel hugged back gingerly, and then took a look around. "Where... are we, Nepheline?" She caught sight of Steven and Garnet, then saw Pearl and Amethyst behind them struggling to their feet. "Wait, are... is that?" Garnet grimaced, and Pearl put a hand to her mouth in shock.

"So, this was another one," Garnet said. Spinel's wings flared.

"It is you!" she said, rage contorting her face into a wicked snarl. "How dare you to show your face to me? You, your friend, and-" she looked at Steven and Amethyst, "-and your two new lackeys!"

"Spinel, forget it," Nepheline said. "We've got to go." Spinel looked from her companion to the Crystal Gems.

"Fine," she sighed. "But if we're gonna go," she said, offering a hand to the pale gem, "then we should go together."

They both smiled, and Garnet summoned her gauntlets. She wasn't fast enough, though, as the two gems began to dance. Spinel's movements were sharp and exaggerated, but Nepheline's more light and fluid movements only served to highlight the best of both their dances, until she ended up in Spinel's arms. As they came together, one gem migrated to her chest. Her body was a much deeper, rich scarlet color, almost the color of rust. Her wings formed again, rich red flames licking the air. Garnet punched at her, but the new gem simply sidestepped, then kicked off into the air.

"I'd love to play, little girl," she said, "but I've got places to be. Ta-ta." With that, she expelled a thick black smog from her mouth which made seeing impossible. A loud whooshing followed by an even louder crashing told them she'd left through the roof of the chamber. As the smoke cleared, Garnet punched the ground.

"She escaped!" Steven walked over, putting a hand on Garnet's shoulder and trying to give her a reassuring smile. She sighed and let her gauntlets fade.

"So, did your futurevision say anything about this?" Steven asked. Garnet shook her head.

"No," she sighed. "And that's what bothers me."


	3. Broken Bonds

"Is this it?" Amethyst asked, holding up another random bauble that she'd produced from one of the countless piles in her room. Garnet shook her head.

"No." Amethyst groaned and tossed it over he shoulder. Pearl was helping to search, but she found herself getting sidetracked on occasion trying to organize things.

"You're the one who got it back from Greg," she said, having finished stacking a bunch of broken appliances into what Steven could only assume was supposed to be a robot.

"Just because I grab something doesn't mean I remember what it looks like," she shot back, coming out with another item for Garnet to look at. "This it?" Garnet took the trinket, a small necklace with a blue stone, and nodded.

"This is it." Steven looked at it with starry eyes.

"Cool!" He held it for a moment, and then blinked. "Wait, why did dad have a Gem item?" Pearl laughed a few short, pitchy laughs.

"Well, Steven," she began, "Rose was very proud of gem culture, as she should have been. She wanted to share as much of it with your father as possible. So she let him have that." She gently took it from him and held it at her own eye level. "This was made to protect Gems from all sorts of hostile environments, so she reasoned it would do just as well for a human." She handed the necklace back to Garnet.

"I see..." Steven said, nodding. "But why do we need it now?" Garnet put the necklace on, and walked out of the room.

"Garnet is going to use it to check places that were too deep or volcanically active on the seabed," she explained. "We're hoping that we can find Malachite."

"Why're we looking for that dysfuntion junction?" Amethyst asked, walking with Pearl and Steven back into the house portion of the Temple.

"We're looking for her because these new gems are like Lapis Lazuli. They have wings, they control the forces of nature..." She produced holograms of each of them, side by side. "They even look similar. The only thing different is the hair and the height. Well, and the color, naturally..."

"So you think Lapis is gonna join their team?" Steven said. Pearl sat down and crossed her legs, eyes closed.

"Honestly, with her fused as Malachite I don't know what to expect," she said, looking up. "Spinel seemed to know Garnet and I, but I can't recall her. Not with all the other hundreds of gems I fought."

"But she didn't recognize me at all!" Amethyst chimed in. "Which would mean she knew you guys from before the war." Pearl bit her lip.

"That makes her so old, though- her and Nepheline." Pearl got up and walked over to the warp pad. "If Garnet gets back before I do, tell her I went to the Crystal Library to do some research." With that, she was off.

Steven helped Amethyst disorganize all the piles Pearl had stacked in her room for a little bit, and then he left, sitting in front of the television. The black, dusty glass reflected his slightly confused face. What was going on with all these Gems? They weren't from Homeworld, not like Jasper and Peridot, and they were so like Lapis. Were they related? Like sisters, or whatever the gem version of being siblings was?

Steven laid back and just thought for a while before nodding off. He woke up a few hours later to the sound of Garnet coming through the door. She made a slight noise of disapproval.

"Steven, I thought I said-" she started, but then she saw the television wasn't on. "Oh." She shook her head. "Where are the others?" she asked.

"Amethyst was in her room last time I talked to her," he said, standing up. "Oh, and Pearl went to go do research at a place called the Crystal Library." Garnet sighed.

"We should try to stick together," she said. "At least you three should. But she's doing research, which should help." The sound of the warp pad coming on told them Pearl was back. She looked particularly pale. Amethyst came out of her room and immediately stopped.

"You okay Pearl?" she asked. Pearl went over to sit on the couch, and then took a deep breath before promptly freaking out.

"They're from Homeworld all right but not from any time we'd have known about how could Rose have not told me she told me everything I-" Garnet put a hand over her mouth and Pearl seemed to find the contact comforting, at least enough to calm down.

"Again. But slow enough I can understand." Pearl tried again, taking a deeper breath than before.

"These gems we've been facing," she started, "were all part of a mission sent here from homeworld many eons ago, way before we had a lot of things even we take for granted. They apparently got here while Earth was still cooling down." Steven's eyebrows knit together.

"What, like during the Ice Age?" he asked. She shook her head.

"No, Steven. When the planet was first forming." Steven's eyes got big.

"But... they don't look that old!" Garnet put a hand to her forehead.

"Steven, we don't age." She put a finger to her chin. "But I'll admit, I didn't think we could go on for that long."

"It gets worse," Pearl said. "Nepheline and Spinel aren't the only two. Lapis Lazuli is listed as one of them, as well as a gem called Marialite. Together they were all sent here to assess if the Earth was viable for harvesting. They never reported in, though, so Homeworld deemed it inhospitable."

"But they didn't keep it like that," Amethyst piped up. "Otherwise I wouldn't be here."

"No, but Rose wrote in a Crystal Memoir," Pearl said, "that they'd allowed themselves to enter a sort of torpor-" she saw Steven's confused look and corrected herself, "-that is, a very deep trance where they only inhabit their gem. Then they woke up once Rose found their Temple."

"That place in the volcano?" Steven asked. Garnet shook her head.

"No, but I know where it's at," she said. "I had forgotten about it until now. It was so long ago, and I had figured we had taken care of things there." She stood, and beckoned Pearl and Amethyst. Steven got up too, but she held out a hand. "No, not you Steven. We're probably going to be fighting some very tough battles where we're going." She took off the necklace and put it on him. "If they come for you, find a safe place on the bottom of the ocean and hide there. Malachite wasn't down there, so it's probably about the only safe place now."

And then they teleported. Steven went over and sat on the couch, kicking his feet for a couple minutes before getting bored. He called Connie and they talked about how Unfamiliar Familiar was getting a movie series made, and then about the most recent episode of Crying Breakfast Friends, which Connie had agreed to watch so Steven could keep up without breaking his grounding. Then they talked a bit about some of the heavier stuff that was going on, like the new threat, and how they needed to hang out more often.  
It was about an hour later that the warp pad hummed and the Crystal Gems all appeared. They looked like they'd been put through a salad spinner and then wrung out in a laundry press. Pearl collapsed first, poofing out in a cloud of white smoke. Amethyst next. Garnet managed to fall to her knee, exhausted, and then say one thing before poofing.

"No television while we're gone."

Steven dropped the phone, eyes big and tearful, as the two gems fell to the ground. Connie was still on the line.

"Steven? Steven!? Is everything okay? I thought I heard the gems just now. Did they get back from that mission? Steven?"


	4. Temple of Shadows

Connie pulled the crackers with marshmallows out of the microwave and smashed the other halves onto them, making a gooey mess of marshmallow and chocolate. Licking her thumb clean, she brought the plate over to where Steven had set up an indoor tent made of blankets and pillows. In the center, he'd made three nests for the Gems' gems out of blankets, and he'd been watching them with wide eyes.

"Here's the smores," she said, sitting down next to him. He took one and munched on it quickly.

"Thanks, Connie," he said. "I would've gotten you something, but I wanna keep an eye on the Gems while they're in there." Connie took a bite of her own smore.

"It's okay," she said, swallowing. "I still can't believe it's been almost three weeks since they came back and poofed." Steven nodded, finishing off his snack.

"Yeah..." he said, head on his hand as he sighed. "Pearl usually takes a while, and I've never seen Garnet poof, but Amethyst never takes this long. I'm starting to get a bit worried."

"Really? I wonder why they're taking so long..." She was also worried about Steven. He looked like he had only left the Gems to eat and use the facilities. It wasn't healthy for him to get like this every time the Gems poofed.

As she thought about forcing him to go take a shower, Pearl's gem glowed. It rose into the air as silhouettes of light flashed by, and then her new form took shape. She looked mostly the same, except for her outfit. She was wearing what looked like a set of armor. It looked like mother-of-pearl, with blue filligree. Her skirt was still there, as well as her bow, but a blue tabard with a yellow star was over her breastplate. Steven was starstruck on seeing her.

"Pearl, you look so..." he said, running to hug her. She blushed and hugged him back. Looking up at her, tears threated to spill out from his eyes. "Cool!" She chuckled. Amethyst began to reform next, also radiating light before settling into her new form. She looked closer to how she had before, the only major change being her right arm now had a metallic sleeve on it, and a large shoulder plate. Steven attacked her next, bowling her over in his enthusiasm. Garnet... reformed as two separate Gems. One was red and the other was blue, and they both looked a bit like Garnet in some places...

"Ruby, Sapphire!" Steven said, and he grabbed their hands and started dancing about, the two small Gems giving in and following suit. Letting go of his hands, they looked over at Connie.

"Oh, yeah..." the red one said. "I guess she didn't know, did she?"

"Pleased to make your acquaintance, at least like this," the blue one said. "We'd love to meet you more properly, but for now that will have to wait. Garnet needs to be here."

With that, the Red one took her hands and they swung around, and Sapphire was lifted into the air before they both became light and melded together. From their union, Garnet formed, wearing her gauntlets and a set of armor like Pearls, but more agressive looking, as though her entire body were weaponized.

"Thank you for being with Steven while we weren't available, Connie," she said. Connie nodded, a bit lost for words.

"Why... do you guys look so different now?" she asked. Pearl looked to Garnet, who remained stoic. Amethyst piped up.

"Because we got our butts handed to us."

"Oh, it was nothing so dramatic," Pearl sputtered. "We managed to get back to the temple, after all." Garnet shook her head.

"Amethyst is right, Pearl. We got our butts handed to us." Steven scratched his head.

"Wait a minute, guys..." he said. "What exactly happened after you left anyway?"

"It's a bit of a long story," Garnet said. "If you have to get a drink or use the restroom, do it now." Steven ran off down the hall. Connie politely excused herself to get a drink and when she got back, Steven was intently focused on Garnet.

"All right, we're ready!" he exclaimed. Garnet cleared her throat.

They arrived on the warp pad not too far from a cave entrance. The locals had called the place Matapan for a long time now, so that's the name the Gems went with. Below the town in the side of a cliff was the cavern mouth they were looking for. It went fairly deep, and a local legend had even said it went to the underworld.

"Which is ridiculous, really..." Pearl interjected. Garnet gave her a look, and she covered her mouth.

They descended down into the cave system, finding a spot where the floor of the cave gave way to a dead drop, with no bottom in sight. Garnet had to climb down with Amethyst and Pearl on her back. After about a mile or three, they reached a floor, but the cave kept going deeper after about five hundred feet of walking from where they'd touched down. This second drop actually had some warm air seeping up from it. Pearl looked to Garnet in worry.

"Do you think it sank into the mantle already?" Garnet shook her head.

"No, Rose made sure it wouldn't." They went down again, and this time they found what they'd been looking for. It was almost too close to the planet's molten mantle, but luckily the safeguards Rose had set up had kept it from being absorbed.

It was a temple, but larger than the one the Crystal Gems use as a base. It was also much more sinister in appearance; the goddess was a giant being with eight wings and four arms. In three she held smaller Gems, each kneeling and head bowed like they were enslaved by her power. The fourth hand held a large, round sphere. There didn't seem to be any activity when they arrived, except for the constant glow of the temple's inner lighting.

"Do you think we beat them here?" Amethyst asked.

"I can't say for sure," Garnet said. "My futurevision doesn't show me anything down here." A great flash of light from within put them on high alert.

"Looks like we didn't," Pearl said, producing her spear. Garnet equipped her gauntlets, and Amethyst cracked her whip.

"Let's go," Garnet said, and they approached the temple's entrance cautiously.

Inside, they could see Nepheline and Spinel, smiling and conversing with a new Gem, the one that had probably just reconstituted. Lapis Lazuli was also there, but Jasper was nowhere to be seen. She seemed uncomfortable, but the others were ignoring her as they caught up.

"I can't belive they used you like this," Spinel said, hugging the new Gem. "Bound to this place to keep it from sinking..."

"At least we managed to get here before them," Nepeheline said. "I shudder to think what those monsters would've done to your gem just to keep you from us."

"Yes, but now is not the time to consider what could have been," the mystery Gem said. "Tell me, who is this that joins us during the moment of our glorious return from the brink of the abyss?" Lapis looked surprised to have been noticed, and scuffed her feet and held her arm.

"M-me?" she asked. "Well, I'm Lapis Lazuli, and I don't really know what I'm doing here." The mystery Gem smiled.

"Lapis Lazuli, I am Marialite," she said, taking Lapis' hand. "You are here because you have a special gift, one which was passed to you by the actions of our brave sister, Lapis. In defiance of the traitors and the betrayers, she allowed her gem to be used to infuse on of those strange machines which create Gems." Lapis Lazuli looked confused, and took her hand away. "And that gem in turn became you. Aren't you so proud?"

"Wait, so Lapis had a mom?" Steven interjected. Garnet sighed, and Pearl fielded the question.

"Not exactly, Steven," she said. "With you and Rose, she created a womb in order to house you and then when she gave birth reverted to her Gem, which then passed to you. With Lapis and Lapis Lazuli, we think she was forced into dormancy and then forced into an Injector, like those we saw at Kindergarten." Steven nodded, and then looked back to Garnet.

"I don't understand," Lapis said. "How can that have happened? When I was made here, they told me..." Marialite placed a finger to her lips.

"Everyone tells a newborn lies," she said. "What matters is you've returned to us." Unlike the other three, who had wings which could flap and move freely, her wings were large, but made of stone and folded close to her back, like the wings of an angel statue.

"Yeah, welcome home, Lapis," Spinel said, slinging an arm around Lapis Lazuli's shoulders. Nepheline cleared her throat.

"Shouldn't we be worried about the Crystal Gems?" she asked. Lapis started to say something, but Marialite shushed her.

"No, no need to worry," she said. "You see, they've already arrived to welcome us back." Garnet and Pearl gasped, as stone grew up around them. Grating, grinding noises reverberated through the caverns and the temple as the Crystal Gems were dragged to the center of the room. Spinel and Nepheline glared at them, while Lapis looked confused and slightly guilty.

"You haven't changed," Spinel spat. "Still nothing but sneaky rats." Marialite held up a hand.

"Enough, Spinel." Her hair hid her eyes, but her wicked smile betrayed her thoughts. "Now... I do believe that these intruders should be dealt with. Care to bring Carnelian in on this matter, please?" Spinel and Nepheline looked to each other, then back to the three prisoners and smirked. They danced together, and the fusion from before stood before them, her height matching Garnet's and making the room feel a little smaller.

"How is it that you all manage such stable fusions?" Garnet asked. Carnelian still had only two arms, but she did have four wings of flame this time. Marialite laughed.

"We bond more readily than you other gems do because of our nature," she said. "You see, while you have to reconcile your thoughts and feelings and share some form of emotional bond, our powers connect us at a deeper level than any conscious thought ever could." She turned to Lapis Lazuli, hand outstretched. "Care to show them, dear?"

With a hesitant nod, Lapis took the other gem's hand. They performed a slow, turning sort of dance, hand to hand, turning this way and that, and then Marialite spun Lapis Lazuli, holding her close as the fusion began. When they finally formed, the gem was standing, statuesque, and then tilted her head back. She laughed madly as her four wings burst from her back, great things of darkness and despair that seemed to consume light. She looked at Garnet, lifting her bangs to reveal a single, pitch-black eye.

"See this, fortuneteller?" she said. "This is the special power that only I, Melanite, have discovered. From this single point in time, I am now reaching back to cloud your third eye, ensuring that your path can only ever lead you to this moment."

"What!?" Steven cried out. "How can she do that? That's, like, cheating or something!" Garnet shook her head.

"It's just something she can do, Steven," she said. "And she wasn't lying, because as she said it I could feel her, reaching back through me there at the Temple to all the other versions of me." She shuddered. "It felt creepy."

Marialite let her bangs fall, concealing the black eye. At that moment, Garnet burst forth from the stony prison and quickly broke Pearl and Amethyst free.

"You might have made sure we'd be here," Garnet said, gauntlets at the ready, "but that only means you've ensured your defeat." Melanite dodged, and jumped back.

"I'm afraid we'll have to agree to disagree on that point," she said. Carnelian took advantage of the distraction and caught Garnet in the side, the two tumbling a bit before righting. The two faced each other, shoulders squared.

"You're through," she said, and the two began to clash. Melanite regarded Pearl and Amethyst.

"Care to dance before you die?" she said. Pearl summoned a second spear, and Amethyst cracked her whip.

"I was about to ask you the same question," Pearl said.

The two ran at the dark gem, only for her to vanish into the shadows. The whole side of the room began to go dark, and Pearl and Amethyst stood back to back, attempting to remain on guard. Melanite laughed, and Pearl blocked a tendril of shadow.

"What's wrong, Crystal Gems?" Another tendril struck at Amethyst, who wrapped her whip around it only for it to dissipate. "Afraid of the dark?" The pair were thrown across the room, and the darkness subsided.

Melanite advanced, a great evil smile on her face and a predatory look in her eyes. Pearl put herself in front of Amethyst, and the two were sent flying through the opening to the caverns. Inside, Carnelian and Garnet continued on, locked in a stalemate. Melanite stood over the two helpless gems, licking her lips.

"Oh, how long I have waited for this moment..." she said, her wings becoming a large scorpion's tail. "You cannot comprehend how delicious this feels. I only hope that as your gems crack, you feel every bit of each fissure and fracture." Her tail raised high, she cackled in glee. "Now, die!"

"Never!" Carnelian crashed into Melanite, and the two were sent sprawling across the cavern floor. Garnet, battered and burnt, scooped up the other two as they ran out of the cave. Behind them, Melanite screeched in fury.

"You may have escaped this time, but I will find you. I will find you all and I will destroy you!"

"Whoah..." Steven said. "So, she's going to be on her way here?" Pearl took this question.

"Thankfully, no," she said. "At least, not for a while. We caved in the cave mouth on our way out." Amethyst chuckled.

"Yeah, if you can call the entire side of a cliff the entrance to a cave." Garnet cleared her throat.

"That should slow them down, for now," she said. "We also destroyed the warp pad there to keep them from getting here directly."

"That's why we were so exhausted," Pearl said. "After all that fighting, we then had to walk to the next warp pad... It all really took its toll."

"And now, we've reformed in some more battle-ready forms," Garnet said. "Hopefully now we can stand up to those gems without being as easily worn down." Steven sighed.

"I still can't believe Lapis is on the wrong side again..."


	5. Sand Castle

It was a really nice day outside. The sun was shining out from behind some sporadic clouds, and Steven felt his beach party vibe starting to itch. He began to lay out his trunks and beach sandals, some sunscreen and some sunglasses, and an assortment of juice boxes that he would stuff into a cooler with some ice and then push onto the beach so he could have some cold drinks while he took breaks from swimming. He contemplated inviting Connie out for a beach party day, but he remembered it was a Friday and she was still attending a summer study group her parents had signed her up for. Just as he was about to put the ice in the cooler, Garnet came out from her room.

"Steven, don't go out just yet," she said. He stopped shoveling ice out of the freezer.

"Awww, how come?" he asked. "The day is perfect today to go out and have some beach fun." He pointed to the cooler. "Just sip some juice, eat some Chaaaps, swim a little..." Garnet held up a bubble.

"This is why, Steven," she said. Steven looked at the object in the bubble, a gem on a pillow, and scrunched his eyebrows in confusion.

"What's the Desert Glass have to do with no beach day for Steven?" he asked.

"It's behaving weirdly," Garnet said, "even though we bubbled it. It should be dormant, but it's putting off some odd vibrational waves." Steven gave her a blank look. "That's bad."

"Oh," he said. "I mean, I can see why a bubbled gem putting out waves is bad, but..."

"It means no beach day for you because the Desert Glass deals with sand, which the beach has a lot of." Steven nodded, finally getting an answer that satisfied his original question.

Pearl was next out of her room, carrying an assortment of strange vials full of a rainbow of liquids. Amethyst was the last out of the rooms, carrying a large table. Pearl gave the table a disapproving look before shaking her head and making the same look she did anytime she asked Steven to get dressed for a mission and he put on the same set of clothes he always did. Garnet carefully tucked the bubble under her arm, and walked out the door, followed by Pearl. Steven caught Amethyst on her way out.

"What're you guys gonna do?" he asked.

"We're gonna unbubble it and run some tests," Amethyst replied, sounding moderately bored. "Pearl insists that she's got something that can help us figure out what the thing is doing." Steven followed her out, eager to watch the gems experiment. Pearl went out ahead of them onto the beach and marked a place for the table with her foot, which Amethyst promptly ignored as she set the table almost on top of Pearl. Garnet placed the bubbled Desert Glass on the table and stood, arms crossed.

"So what are you gonna do, Pearl?" Steven asked, standing at the opposite end of the table from the Gems. Pearl laid out her various vials and began to organize her space.

"Well, I have a series of chemical reagents that I think should provide some useful data based on their reactions with the matrix of-" She looked at Steven, and sighed. "I'm going to pour these chemicals on it."

Steven nodded, and moved back. As Pearl grabbed a vial, Garnet popped the bubble around the Desert Glass. On the ground, small rivulets of sand began to rise and fall under the table. It was worse than last time. Now it didn't even have to be touching the sand. Pearl quickly dumped the vial onto the gem, and the sand stopped rising, now just rippling like waves on the beach. Pearl hummed, and picked up another vial, dousing the gem again. With this concoction, the ripples ceased, and Pearl smiled.

"Look, we've got progress," she said. "Isn't that encouraging?"

She went to grab another vial, when a gust of wind blew down the table and all of the equipment. Pearl gasped and quickly grabbed hold of the Desert Glass, and Garnet turned around. Between the Crystal Gems and the house, Nepheline landed gracefully on the ground. Next to her, Marialite stood atop a plinth of stone that she was manipulating through the air. She landed next to Nepheline, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She started looking around, which struck Steven as odd because her hair was covering her face.

"How disappointing," she said, training herself on Steven. "This shoddy temple would be shameful even without the infesting attachment." Steven frowned, and looked to Nepheline.

"Why are you guys so mad at us?" he asked. Nepheline opened her mouth, but Marialite held up a hand and stepped down from her perch.

"I do not know you," she said. "I have not seen you, but you seem familiar. How fascinating..." She pursed her lips and then shook her head. "It matters not. We are here not for you, but for the Glass."

"You'll take it right after you break my gem," Garnet said, tossing Pearl and the Desert Glass away before charging at Marialite. Amethyst made to attack Nepheline, but she swept her onto her back and landed in front of Steven.

"I'm sorry, Steven," she said, and reached for him. Before she could touch him, though, Pearl slammed into her shoulder-first. Nepheline went tumbling as Pearl produced her spear and leveled it at the other gem.

"If you go near him again I will end you," she said, handing Steven the Desert Glass. Amethyst pushed him behind her and pulled out her whip.

Marialite and Garnet were seemingly even in their fight, with her stone wings providing excellent defense against Garnet's gauntlets. Then, with a smirk, she struck Garnet with an outstretched wing, laying her out on the ground.

"Nepheline, now!" she cried, and Nepheline flew to her. They began to dance, Marialite dancing slowly as she was circled by Nepheline. Though Pearl and Amethyst moved to stop them, they were too late as they joined together. In their place, a new alabaster gem stood. Where Nepheline had been cloudy, with streaks of gray all through her body, this new gem looked white from a distance, but upon closer inspection she was grainy with whites and grays.

"Not another one," Garnet said, gritting her teeth as she got up.

"Oh yes," she said, stretching her muscles. Behind her, sand began to move in small streams towards her. "I am Sanidine, and I'll be taking that gem now." Now the sand was forming four wings. They weren't sticking around, though. Bits would drop off, only for a stream to replace the lost sand.

"You can try," Amethyst said, running at the fusion. She was surprised, though, when Sanidine disappeared down into the beach.

She punched the ground, but nothing happened besides scattering the sand into the air. The gems looked around, on edge as they waited for her to resurface. As wind blew across the beach, Steven turned around in time to see Sanidine burst from the ground. He yelled, and as she reached for the Desert Glass Garnet pulled him behind the Crystal Gems. Steven went tumbling onto the beach, and the Desert Glass slipped from his hands, landing neatly on the sand a foot away.

"No!" everyone shouted in unison. Almost right away, large columns shot up around Steven. The Glass raised itself on a pedestal, and a room formed around them, and that was when Steven lost sight of everyone else. The ground shook for a good five or six minutes, and then got calm again. Steven looked around, finding a nearby window. It was up pretty high, so he had to jump a couple of times before he got a good hold on the sill.

Hoisting himself up, his eyes went wide as he looked out. He was a good seven stories up in the air, with several walls, towers, and courtyards down in the complex below. Every now and then, walls shifted, or a tower collapsed and reformed somewhere else. He couldn't see any of the others. He looked around the room, trying to get his bearings. Sanidine was probably on her way there already, and she had the advantage of moving through the sand.

"Why is she even after this?" he said, looking again at the gem on the pillow. "Is it powerful or something?"

"Not exactly, little boy." Steven quickly turned to see Sanidine rising from the floor. "Not that you would know, but that gem was once like me, and the traitors down below. Now, it has been confined for so long that it cannot think to be anything but a construction matrix. It is only good for planning and building a fortified fortress." She took a step forward, and Steven stood in front of the Desert Glass.

"If it used to be a gem, then using it for anything is wrong," he said. "Why wouldn't you want to try and get it back to normal?"

"Foolish boy," she said, leaping for the gem. Steven grabbed it and rolled under her. "That thing isn't a gem anymore because of the actions of the betrayers from our homeworld. They took away the spark of life and made it what it is. The best way to honor the memory of the Desert Glass is to use it to destroy the Crystal Gems, who are probably what cost it its freedom."

"You don't know that!" Steven said, running out the door. Sanidine took off after him, but walls began to shape behind him and fall in front of him.

Finally, he hit a dead end where the wall opened up on nothing but air. Sanidine huffed and growled as she melted through the wall and her eyes lit up.

"Nowhere to go, runt!" she said. "You were very clever to grab the Glass and let it protect you, but the thing is flawed and it can't think on the run. You only delayed the inevitable."

"That's what we're for!" The wall beside Sanidine exploded and Pearl and Garnet came barreling through, with Pearl standing between Steven and the fight. Sanidine was pulling up sand shields to keep Garnet from actually hitting her, but the confined space was limiting her. As Garnet won the upper hand, Sanidine smiled.

"Why don't you play fetch, fusion?" she said, and Steven yelped as the sand beneath his feet became loose and he began to fall. Pearl yelped and as Steven fell, he saw a flash of light. Sardonyx came over the edge and moved quickly to grab him, but the Desert Glass slipped from his hands. From the wall below them, Sanidine darted out and snatched it up.

When they hit the ground, Sardonyx put Steven down before turning to the enemy gem. She had a hand on the gem and a strange glaze across her eyes, coming out of the trance just in time to move out of the way of the large warhammer coming for her face.

"You've been a horrible heckler, you know that?" Sardonyx quipped. "Luckily, I've got quite the showstopper in mind for you." She swung the hammer again. "One might even say it packs quite the punch."

"Hmph, how bland," Sanidine said, now effortlessly dodging the blows with the confinement gone. "It doesn't matter. This has been a waste of time. The Glass has become too far gone." She dodged another blow, and then yawned. "Still no reason to let you keep it. So..."

As Sardonyx made another swing, Sanidine tossed the Desert Glass at the hammer and vanished into the sand. There was a sickening cracking sound as the hammer made contact, and then pieces of the gem showered into the beach. The walls of the enormous sand fortress collapsed in moments, and Amethyst sputtered as she dug her way out. Sardonyx, a look of horror on her face, popped, and Pearl and Garnet looked at the tiny holes where the shards had landed.

"Did you guys get her?" Amethyst looked from Pearl to Garnet and then to Steven. "Geez, who died?" Garnet began to pound the beach, sand spraying as she hit actual sandstone, and Pearl had to grab her arm.

"She's gone, Garnet!" she said, and Garnet scowled.

"They're monsters." As Garnet walked back to the temple, Amethyst walked over to Pearl and they talked for a bit. Then she howled and turned into her Purple Puma form, taking out random rocks and kicking up sand in a rage. Pearl walked over to Steven and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Perhaps tomorrow we could all do with a beach day."


	6. Cold Snap

Connie laughed and splashed about in the water, she and Steven having gone not very far from the Temple for their beach day. She'd insisted on their going out today after hearing him tell about how the Desert Glass incident had gone. He seemed pretty down about it, and she wasn't even sure how to cheer him up. Pearl had agreed to let them go to the beach only if she brought along Rose's sword, which wasn't an issue and Connie agreed that Steven was probably a prime target. Her mother hadn't been very happy to see her carrying it out the door, but she explained the current situation and her mother let the subject go.

Now they were out in the sun, letting the ocean spray keep them pleasantly cool when they weren't in the ocean. There were a couple of extra large towels underneath a sun-faded umbrella. Steven had brought down a cooler with juice boxes and cold cut sandwiches in baggies inside. He was sunbathing, or at least he was laying down in the sunlight and not swimming out with her, and she stopped splashing.

"Come on, Steven," Connie said, walking out of the water and sitting down next to the young gem. "We're not going to have a very fun beach day if I'm the only one out there making a splash."

"I dunno," he said, chin in his hand as he looked out over the water. "I just can't get into the mood. I keep thinking about those gems that attacked the temple. They were so… mean. And they broke that gem for no reason." Connie grabbed a juice pouch and poked in the straw.

"I'm sure they had a reason," she said. "But you don't get it because you're not like them. They probably wanted it for something, but they wanted the gems to not have it more. So when they couldn't get away with it, they made sure no one had it. It's just like with the Spirit Crystal from the third Unfamiliar Familiar book, remember?" Steven shook his head.

"That's still not right. That was a gem, just like them. It's wrong, and I don't know how we can make them understand that." He got up, dusting off some sand and started wading out into the water. "Maybe the sea can help me figure something out. See if anything comes to me."

Steven allowed himself to float atop the gently rocking water, the sound of the surf and the echoing calls of sea birds providing a small amount of relaxation. He heard Connie return to the water, and felt her near him, and he lifted his head to see her floating too. They drifted close to each other, and on instinct Steven grabbed her hand. They laced their fingers, the constancy of his best friend being even more soothing than the ocean. He felt like she was the only thing that still wasn't going crazy. Thinking about the recent events was only placing more stress on him, and it made him feel like there was a cold lump in his stomach. Nepheline had seemed like Lapis once she was free, but the two were nothing alike in the end. Was it the time difference? They had said Lapis was made using the previous Lapis' gem, but who knows how long they had waited for her to come back and she hadn't. Could gems remember stuff like a past life? If so, was that why Lapis was helping them now? The cold feeling in his stomach seemed to be getting worse the more he thought about things. Was this part of growing up, the constant feeling of worry? He just couldn't help it. Man, it was cold, though. Connie spoke up.

"Steven!" she said, making a lot of fuss as she splashed away to the shore. "Steven, the water's freezing!" Raising his head, Steven looked out and saw that she was right, and that the water out on the horizon had already turned into jagged floes. He scrambled out onto the sand just as the first frigid lines spiked into the water near the shore.

"What's going on?" he said, putting on his shirt and shivering a bit. As he said that, a geyser of water burst forth from the sea. As Steven put up his bubble around the two of them, it formed a cage, and then froze. From the ocean, a gem burst forth. Its four wings were made of snow, and as it landed Steven saw that the body was translucent, like frosted glass.

"Who are you?" Connie said, pulling out Rose's sword from the scabbard at her feet. Four eyes blinked and settled on Steven.

"Petalite," she said. "I am Petalite. You don't know how hard this is, Steven, but I'm really just going to keep you out of the way. You freed me, and you're nothing like the others."

"I freed… you?" Steven said. "Then that means—Lapis and Nepheline!" He popped the bubble and threw himself against the icy bars of the cage. "Let me out! You don't have to do whatever you're thinking of doing!"

"Don't get in my way, Steven. I want you to survive this." And then she walked towards the Temple, up the stairs, and into his room. Steven was growing panicked.

"Don't worry, Steven, we've got this," Connie said, hefting the sword. "We just—" She hacked at a bar. "—have to break a couple—" More strikes, chipping off some frost flakes, but nothing significant. "BARS!" Connie huffed, tired from trying to escape. "This isn't working…"

"Not on your own, it's not," Steven said. "Maybe together, we could…" Connie blushed, but then shook her head and nodded.

"Yeah, together." She laid down the sword, and Steven rubbed a hand through his curly hair.

"We don't have any music, I hope that doesn't ruin the mood." Laughing, Connie took his hand, and they did a quirky, weird little dance that Pearl would've raised an eyebrow at and made Amethyst chuckle, but to them, it was perfect. The warm feeling of each other engulfed them, and Stevonnie laughed herself into full form, forgetting for a moment the issue at hand.

Bringing the laughing under control, the odd fusion grabbed Rose's sword and held it for a moment, feeling the weight of it. It was new and familiar all at once. Confident in just feeling through the movements of the sword and letting muscle memory do the hard work. Stevonnie sliced through two of the bars, the ice crumbling away like it was nothing. They moved quickly, jumping up to the balcony and opening the door. Within was a scene that almost shocked them out of their fusion.

Petalite had Garnet and Amethyst stuck to the wall, ice encasing them enough to prevent escape. Pearl, on the other hand, was in front of her, inside a kind of ice stalactite and with Petalite's wings stretched out over her. Frigid air seemed to be pouring from them, and Pearl's face was contorted as she tried to avoid catching it head-on. The sound of the door opening made the winged gem turn around, and for a moment she was confused.

"Steven? No…" She flapped her wings, her eyes trained on the sword in Stevonnie's hand. "Somehow you fused with that human." For a moment, one half of her face smiled. "That's so cool!" The still glaring half reasserted control. "Focus." Taking deep, calming breaths, they thought back to Pearl's lessons.

"Keep my stance wide…" She held up the blade, getting into position. "Keep my body lowered." Petalite lunged, and Stevonnie rolled to one side, turning and thrusting at her. She flipped, and the two were once again in a staring match.

"You're pretty good. You know how to use that pretty well, Steven."

"Actually, it's more of a team effort." Without really thinking about it, Rose's Shield appeared as the gem glowed in their belly button. "Jam buddies, you know?"

"Jam buddies?" The moment of confusion was the opening they were looking for.

Stevonnie made for Petalite, thrusting with dangerous precision. The enemy gem dodged, but was stuck on the defensive, and she snarled and grunted as her predicament began to wear on her. With one last dodge, she broke through the window, and alighted on the beach. With a few wide steps, Stevonnie reached Pearl's icy prison and shattered it by ramming the hilt into it. As it broke, she curled into a fetal position, shivering. Freeing Garnet and Amethyst, Stevonnie returned to Pearl while the other two ran out to confront Petalite.

"Pearl, are you okay? Why are you all huddled up like you're cold?" She shook, for a moment didn't say anything, but finally manage to get out a very faint whisper.

"C-c-cold c-can af-f-fect some gems drastically. I-it can even crack a ge-ge-gem if it happens fast enough." Drawing herself tighter, she looked into Stevonnie's eyes. "I'm s-sorry to do this to you again so soon, Steven, but I'm a-afraid it can't be helped." And then she poofed. A cold heavy feeling started welling up in their stomach, and then they weren't fused anymore.

Steven was cradling Pearl's gem against him, trying to warm her up. For a moment, Connie was reminded of the little nests he made for them and she almost laughed at the thought. She was an egg. Thinking about some of the books she'd read from her mom's huge shelf of medical stuff, she thought perhaps she was retreating into absurdity to dull the immediate shock. She needed to be strong for Steven right now. Garnet and Amethyst walked back in, neither looking particularly happy. Amethyst's face was actually half-frozen. Behind them, Steven saw the day had turned gray and dreary.

"She got away," Garnet said, coming over to kneel by Steven. He looked up to her with tear-stained cheeks and running nose. "Don't worry, Steven. It was a sneaky trick to use, but Pearl was tough about it. She'll pull through."

"You sure?" She nodded, and Steven wiped his arm across his face. "Okay. I'll go grab the blankets and start rebuilding the nest."

"Just don't sit on her." Amethyst started laughing, and the ice on her face broke off.

"Well, at least that fixed itself," she said, picking up one of the bigger pieces that still had the shape of her eye and some of her bangs. "I wonder if there's a way I can save this." Shrugging, she opened the freezer door and chucked it in, before closing the door and walking over to the couch. With a heavy sigh, she flopped onto the cushions and stretched out.

"So, uhm… I think I'm just gonna go, and…" Connie trailed off, seeing Steven's face. "Steven, I want to stay, I really do, but mom would have a conniption fit if I got home late again." He didn't look any less mopey about it. "I'll be back tomorrow, and on the weekend for sure. Don't worry, I'll be back." She hugged him tight. "Just like Pearl." With that, Connie gathered up her stuff, waved goodbye from the door, and then trotted down the steps. Garnet put a hand on Steven's shoulder.

"Try not to be too down, Steven. Things will be okay." She walked over to the Temple Room door, and entered her own room. Steven sat on the couch next to Amethyst, and she rolled over so she could look at him.

"Stevonnie was super awesome, you know? I didn't think you guys could use the shield while you were fused." Steven nodded, thinking about it.

"Every time we fuse, it feels like it gets easier. Is that normal?" She nodded.

"For most gems, yeah. I would've thought for someone like Lapis it'd be difficult every time, though, since Malachite was such a bad experience." Steven hummed, crossing his arms and scrunching his eyebrows.

"I wonder if it has something to do with Marialite. She seems to be, like, their leader or something, and Lapis wouldn't be doing stuff like this normally." He thought about how things had gone with Peridot. "And I don't feel like Nepheline would either. I think she's just upset about being stuck in that sword, like Lapis was with the mirror."

"Doesn't give her any right to be such an enormous butt." Amethyst sat up and crossed her arms. "No one barges into our home and gets away with it."

With a huff, she got up and made her way to her room. Steven looked at Pearl's gem, cradled in a nest again, made from all the heavy blankets in his room to try and keep her warm. On the one hand, he knew Amethyst was right. There wasn't an excuse for them to be attacking them, trying to do these mean things to them. On the other hand, thought, Steven felt like there was something off about everything. Something they weren't seeing, but that was affecting the events at hand. Shaking his head, he grabbed a pillow and one of the lighter blankets. As he snuggled up next to the nest, he looked at the broken window, and sighed.

"I wonder how long that's going to take to fix."


End file.
